The walls are closing in on the City of Tshwane as answers are demanded on the municipality's controversial multimillion-rand smart electricity meter project. This comes as Public Protector Thuli Madonsela prepares to subpoena the city after numerous requests for information on the project from her office bore no fruit.It now appears Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa is to be dragged into a confidential hearing to explain Tshwane's awarding of the contract to install more than 120 000 meters.Allegations are rife that the contract was awarded irregularly and that the city was initially warned by the national Treasury not to proceed with it as it would prove too costly in the long term."The public protector wishes to draw attention to the fact that most of the information sought from the city is still outstanding. As a result, a subpoena will be issued for a confidential hearing to be held at the national office of the public protector with a view to preparing a report within 30 days thereafter," Madonsela's office said.Tshwane's smart meter project has been in the public protector's sights since March 2013. But efforts to get more information proved unsuccessful at the time because the city claimed a contract had not been entered into.But Tshwane later awarded the contract to PEU Capital Partners despite the public protector's office also flagging the project for "alleged irregularity"."At the time of the first letter to the mayor of the City of Tshwane, the city advised that the contract had not been awarded and that the city had only entered into a memorandum of understanding with PEU Capital Partners."From then her office battled to get the necessary information to conclude the investigation, only to discover that, while failing to provide information on the matter and being aware that there was an alleged irregularity, the city proceeded to award the contract to PEU Capital Partners," the public protector revealed last week.Ramokgopa in May announced the termination of the contract with PEU Capital Partners after it had been paid more than R800-million. But it has been claimed that exiting the contract would cost the city R1.2-billion in penalty fees.Madonsela has written to Tshwane asking that a new contract "should not be awarded before her office's investigation is concluded and its outcome communicated to the city council, [Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs] and the national Treasury".She has also written to Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan requesting that he reverse an order for a second investigation into the smart meter contract.Gordhan last week instructed Gauteng local government MEC Jacob Mamabolo to investigate Tshwane's awarding of the contract to PEU Capital Partners after he was unable to reply to a question in the legislature on the matter because of inadequate information from Tshwane...